About BitTorrent

Share:

BitTorrent is a program that runs according to set of rules specified. Probably, it has got one of the most extensive traffic networks when compared with the traffic arising from other file sharing tools. The client using BitTorrent platform for transfer of files either upload or download follow the protocols set only. The successful run of this amazing tool must be credited to the internal working of the whole platform.

Talking in stats the success of BitTorrent can be supported by the fact that more than 10 percent of North America’s internet traffic is derivative of the system while the figure jumps to astounding 36 per cent for the Asia – Pacific regions. In technical terms BitTorrent can be regarded as an eccentric peer to peer protocol for file transfer that works far better than many other well-known clients. It is the working of this platform only that makes it highly efficient and most used one among the other file sharing tools.

More taking a correct estimate about the efficiency of BitTorrent protocol for working, it becomes important to compare the conventional platform for downloading the data using HTTP with the system. While downloading the content from World Wide Web using HTTP or other well used protocols, the client machine gets connected to a central server which provides the data sequentially to the client. If the server is fired with multiple requests of the same data in a single point of time then it runs slow which is shown as ‘SERVER DOWN’ to the users.

In contrast to this conventional approach, BitTorrent works very differently. It forms a web of many clients that are uploading or downloading the same file from different location. The people then download the parts of the same file from different clients which have already downloaded that part (known as Peers). This increases the efficiency and decreases the traffic load on a single node for multiple requests on same data.

For sharing a file, one has to create a small file known as torrent file that contains the metadata about the information that needs to be shared and also the tracker information which is needed for distribution purpose. Peers wanting to download this file must first download a torrent file for it through which they can connect to the tracker. The tracker helps the platform to identify that the part of the file that you need to download is available with which Peer or resource.

Thus, the efficiency of the BitTorrent protocol over other file sharing protocols is definitely highlighted the way it works. Other important thing that makes it a huge success is the tit for tat policy that it adopts. This means that once you have downloaded the file you should upload it. The more seeds you provide to other downloading clients, more speed you will receive for the next download. In fact the amazing policy is implied even when you are making your first download. When a certain part of your file is downloaded, it is made available to other clients for download if you have not put restriction on the upload and its speed. This way the BitTorrent works on mutual benefits.